Career
Born November 24, 1887, Nettie McBirney earned a home economics degree from the Stout Institute in Menomonie, Wisconsin. She moved to Claremore, Oklahoma in 1909 to teach home economics. Two years later, she became supervisor of home economics at Muskogee schools.
After marrying Sam P. McBirney, coach of the University of Tulsa football team and vice president of the National Bank of Commerce, she settled in Tulsa in 1916.
In 1935, she approached Tulsa World editor North.G. Henthorne about writing a cooking column that contained simple advice and taught cooking techniques. "Kitchen Log" ran five times a week in the World through 1955.
She also became a demonstration chef, first at Vandever"s Department Store and other stores in Tulsa, and later in many other parts of the country. McBirney began inventing kitchen aids during the Depression, such as a non-stick pastry canvas and rolling pin cover and a pie pan that promised perfect bottom crusts on pies.
The invention she became best known for was her Cooky Molding Cutter, now known as Gramma"s Cutter, a cookie cutter designed to easily release the molded cookie dough and maintain a 3-Doctorate appearance.
She began selling them in 1948 and they quickly caught on. Princess Margaret purchased a set of the cookie cutters for Prince Charles in 1952, and Wrigley purchased, then sold 70,000 sets as a special promotion the same year. Death and afterward Nettie McBirney died on December 16, 1982.
Her collection of about 1,000 cookbooks was donated to the Tulsa City-County Library in 1973.
